Talking About You

It's all about you. People, in general love to talk about themselves. Especially if they think a listener is interested. PI's or other investigative folks can truly exploit this.

But in casual conversation, it can leave things a bit lopsided. Small talk has never been easy for me. A situation compounded by the fact that I often don't think myself very interesting. Except for my writing.

So, I'll try to ask people about themselves, what they do, etc, when in conversation. And most of the time, people are happy to talk about themselves. Though, a trend I've been observing lately, is that few people will reciprocate the questions.

"So what do you do?" I ask.
"I work at such and such company doing this or that."
"That's cool. How long have you been there?"
"Three years. Before that I was doing this other job."
"Wow, what a change..." And so the conversation goes.

Rarely does it include, "And what about you?"

Since they don't ask, I often don't tell.

I don't want to impose. Maybe I'm not very interesting to them. My life doesn't usually include car chases or explosions. It does include the occaisionally naked woman, though.

I muse-- what does this mean? My best answer is that's just part of the death of common courtesy. And a sign of the rise in selfishness.

After all, it's all about me. Well, you at least.

But I'll admit that I'm mining what you say for my writing. =)